When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
God speaks here as a father, remembering the first days of the nation He rescued from Egypt — and the rest of the chapter shows how that child repaid Him. Centuries later Matthew applies this same line to Jesus, which raises one question: how can a line about the exodus be a prophecy about Christ?
The verse opens with God's feeling toward a nation still in its infancy. The picture is of a parent with a small child.
Think of the tender, loving care in these touching words, so full of a parent's affection: "When Israel was a child, I loved him … and I was the one who taught Ephraim to walk — He took them in His arms" (Hosea 11:1, 3). A mother holds her child in her arms as the object of her protecting love and care. She holds its arms when she teaches it to walk. God dealt with His earthly people in the same way.
Commentators tie this line to the exodus itself.
The allusion is clear to the past history of Israel, when they were the object of Jehovah's love and delivering power and special government.
The title "my son" was not new with Hosea. God had used it of the nation when He first sent Moses to Pharaoh.
Moses was to say to Pharaoh, "Thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn." Ex. 4:22. God called him out of Egypt, which is applied also to the Lord Jesus. Hosea 11:1; Matt. 2:15.
But the two sonships are not the same. One writer draws the difference as the nation loses its place.
God was setting aside the people He had called out of Egypt — the nation He was pleased to call "My son, even My firstborn" (Exodus 4:22)… Into this gap steps One who, like the nation before Him, is called out of Egypt… There is this similarity, but there is also an essential difference. Israel became Jehovah's son by His calling the Nation to that place. Son is not what Christ became but what He is in His eternal Being.
Read on its own, the verse looks backward, not forward. It sounds like a complaint, not a prediction.
The prophecy to be fulfilled is Hosea 11:1: "Out of Egypt I called my son." But at first glance this does not look like a prophecy at all, and surely not a prophecy of Christ. Anyone reading it would say it was only a rebuke of Israel as a nation. They had repaid the love God showed in redeeming them long ago by turning away from Him to worship Baal.
The same writer insists Matthew is doing more than borrowing a convenient phrase.
And yet applying the first verse to the Lord is more than an application… The wording of the quotation is far too exact for that. The Lord went down into Egypt for the very purpose of fulfilling what Hosea said.
One answer is that Jesus, carried into Egypt and called out again, begins Israel's story over.
He went down into Egypt to escape Herod's cruel plan to take His life. There He becomes the true Branch. In His own Person He starts the history of Israel over again — morally, that is… The prophecy of Hosea, "out of Egypt I called my son", is not the only word that applies to this true beginning of Israel in grace, as the beloved of God and according to God's purposes. The people had failed completely, and without this God would have had to cut them off.
Another writer says the prophet joins the two together.
God inspired the prophet to blend, as it were, Israel of old and Christ called out of Egypt. Before God, Christ was the true Israel. Israel's history started again in that blessed Person — the One for Whose sake God had led the ancient people out at their beginning.
Because Christ takes up the story, Israel's own future is not lost. He holds it.
Israel had failed completely. It even failed to listen to this glorious Person when He came. Israel comes to fulfil its destiny only in and through Christ, who comes of Israel… In Him, the "Son born" to them, Israel as a nation is yet to revive. His glory carries their blessing with it. He begins their history again for God, cleansed of its failure and its shame. From this comes the necessary application of passages like the one in Hosea, "Out of Egypt I called my son."
- Loved — God loved Israel as a child nation, carrying it and teaching it to walk.
- Called — that love called Israel out of Egypt and gave the nation the title "My son, even My firstborn."
- Failed — the son called out of Egypt turned to Baal, so the chapter is as much rebuke as memory.
- Replaced — Jesus went down into Egypt and came out at God's call, taking the failed son's place and starting Israel's history again in His own Person.
- Restored — Israel's blessing is not lost. It is held for them in Christ, whose glory carries their blessing with it.
As they called them, so they went from them they sacrificed unto the Baals, and burned incense to graven images.
In this chapter God recalls how He loved Israel as a child and called His son out of Egypt. This verse is the nation's answer to that love. Two questions sit inside it. Who was doing the calling? And why does kindness so often meet retreat?
Older translations read the verse as "As they called them, so they went from them." So who are "they"? One writer names the callers: the prophets God kept sending.
The first seven verses of Hosea 11 draw attention to the love and care He had given them, yet the people were set on backsliding from Him. God sent the prophets to call them to repentance, but even so: "As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to carved images" (Hosea 11:2).
The ESV turns it into a rising pattern: the more God called, the further they ran. The movement is the same. Every call back produced more distance.
Taken on its own, this verse is an accusation. God had taken a slave people and made them family. This is what they gave Him back.
Anyone looking at it would say it was simply a rebuke of Israel as a nation. They repaid with apostasy and Baal-worship the love God had shown in redeeming them long ago. He had them taken out of the misery of their bondage, and called them to adoption as His own family among the families of the earth. But how had they repaid it? "As they [the prophets] called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to carved images."
Verse 1 speaks of a son called out of Egypt. Verse 2 records how that son answered. One writer sets Israel's record beside the Son of God, who carried the same title and did not fail.
But while the Son of God, the true Israel, was perfect and holy in all His ways, Israel was unfaithful. Here the record of Jehovah's faithfulness and mercy is opened up. He sent them prophets who called them, but they turned away from Him and gave themselves over to the Baals and the idol-gods. How loving He had been to them! He led them, took them into His arms and healed them.
Another writer sees this chapter placing Christ between Israel's past and Israel's future.
Meanwhile the Lord Jesus comes in between the two, living the history over again in His own person, and becoming the basis for the future restoration of Israel.
God led them, carried them, and healed them. Their reaction shows how badly a heart set on going away can misread even kindness.
So, despite all His goodness in every form they needed, they saw Him as one of those who lay the yoke on the Jews — however He fed them.
Burning incense to carved images did not, in their own minds, mean abandoning Jehovah. God will not accept that mixture. The same instinct shows up outside Israel too.
It did not matter that they pretended to honour Jehovah alongside their false gods. In fact such a partnership made things worse in His sight. Their zeal for His feasts might look serious. But their tampering with idols only increased their guilt and His anger. And there is no doubt: they often showed themselves more zealous for the false gods than for the true God. Christians do the same now. When they take up bad doctrine, the error absorbs them, and they seem to lose the very truth they once professed.
Verse 2 is not the last word of the chapter. The God who records the running away still holds on to His love.
After all this (Hosea 11), God still remembers His early love for Jacob. He reminds them of all His loving kindness, His goodness, His care for them. They would not return to their former condition in Egypt; Assyria would be the place of their captivity. But however great the sin of Israel, the heart of their God cannot forsake His people: He will not destroy them; He is God, and not man.
- Called — God kept sending prophets to call Israel back to Himself. The calling never stopped.
- Refused — The more He called, the further they went. Distance from God was not an accident of circumstance but a settled direction of the will.
- Replaced — They turned to Baal worship and incense to carved images. Many kept God's name alongside the idols, and that mixture made the guilt worse, not lighter.
- Reversed — Israel repaid redeeming love with apostasy. Christ, the true Son called out of Egypt, walked the same history in perfect faithfulness.
- Retained — Even after all this, God will not forsake His people, because He is God and not man. Love answers the running away, not abandonment.
And I it was that taught Ephraim to walk, -- He took them upon his arms, -- but they knew not that I healed them.
God speaks here as a parent remembering a child's first steps. The child is Ephraim, God's people Israel. The verse holds two things together: God's most personal care, and a people who never realised what He was doing for them.
One writer starts from an everyday family scene to show what those arms mean:
A mother holds her child in her arms as the object of her protecting love and care. She holds its arms when she teaches it to walk. God dealt with His people on earth in the same way. He carried them the way you carry a baby. His everlasting arms held them up as He taught them to walk in His ways, leaning on Him completely and trusting Him without wavering. But how unsteady and uncertain their steps were! They stumbled all the way — at Marah, in the wilderness of Sin, at Rephidim. Still those mighty arms held them up, with a patience that never ran out.
God gave this care to a people already turning their backs on Him. One writer sets them beside Christ, the true Israel:
But while the Son of God, the true Israel, was perfect and holy in all His ways, Israel was unfaithful. Here the record of Jehovah's faithfulness and mercy unfolds. He sent them prophets who called them. But they turned away from Him and gave themselves over to the Baals and the idol-gods. How loving He had been to them! He led them, took them into His arms and healed them. He drew them with cords of love… It is a beautiful picture of His great gentleness with them.
God withheld nothing. Israel read His kindness as something else. One writer names what they saw instead:
Despite all His goodness, shown in every fitting form, He was in their eyes like those who put the yoke on them, however well He fed them.
God keeps going back over the record — the calling, the arms, the healing. One writer takes that as a mark of real affection, and a mirror for us:
See how God remembers and points back to every kind of contact between Himself and Israel! He recalls the moments of grace on His part, and faith even on Jacob's part. This is true affection. Now Israel drifted on, completely unfeeling and forgetful… But how wonderful this is! And how we forget the proofs of most loving grace we have had from God, and go on with idle minds! We ought to be with Him in the present. Then memory is, so to speak, not needed. But God has dealt with us, and His heart calls it to mind when we grow cold and forget, because He loves.
Christ met the same refusal when He stood among that people Himself:
But who can tell the sorrows of Emmanuel among that people? They mocked His tender words and refused all His gracious appeals. What words can describe the feelings that filled His soul? He had to cry out to the rebellious city: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" (Luke 13:34).
- Taught. God held Israel's arms like a parent teaching a toddler. He taught them to walk in His ways, depending on Him.
- Carried. Their steps were unsteady from the start, and they stumbled at stop after stop in the desert. The arms that held them never let go, and His patience never ran out.
- Healed. He led them, took them into His arms and healed them. It is a picture of great gentleness, shown to a people who had already turned to idols.
- Unnoticed. For all His goodness, they saw Him as one who laid a yoke on them, not as the God who healed them.
- Remembered. God recalls old kindnesses because He loves. We forget the proofs of grace He has given us. That same love later grieved over Jerusalem.